What happens next
As this quarter comes to a close i am left wondering what’s next? In the fall we will have many opportunities to take this project to the kitchen. It feels like completing a life cycle. We took these plants from seed to plate. This project has shown me how important it is to have transparency between you and the route your food has taken. I know that these eggplants will taste good because I planted each one with care, I weeded them with love, and I harvested them with a group of amazing people. In the fall quarter we will be taking our eggplants from the field to the kitchen. We found many recipes for gilos that look amazing. The idea of putting these eggplants into more western dishes like an eggplant parm has come up a few times. While I think this sounds interesting I think we are going more of a traditional approach. For some of us this is challenging our tastebuds. A new cultural food made with new cultural ingredients. This project has also changed how I view bitter and other commonly thought of bad tastes. I’ve gone from being avoidant and negative about bitter to thinking of it as a reminder I’m alive. It reminds me that my body can be shocked, that my senses are still here, it reminds me that something can go wrong and I can be okay. I’m excited to finish up harvesting these eggplants and try them in many different forms. I’m also excited to see how these plants sell in at the markets! I will definitely buy some to cook with. I wonder how many will get sold, what do people think of this food, or what do people think about our project.
For the fall quarter I hope to do a few projects to wrap this up. I want to make a small recipe book for the recipes we found, I want to cook and eat Gilos in a dish and do a flavor analysis, and I want to make some sticker or tee-shirt designs that I would theoretically sell with the culinary breeders’ network.
For more reflection and plans for next quarter check out my final self eval (link here)